Investigating the impact of airway management training on the moral distress and compassion fatigue of nurses working in intensive care units

INTRODUCTION: In the intensive care unit (ICU) due to specific conditions of patients, nurses experienced high prevalence of compassion fatigue and moral distress that can reduce job satisfaction and impact on quality of care so identify the factors affecting on compassion fatigue and moral distress are very important. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of airway management training on the quality of care delivery, and the moral distress and compassion fatigue of nurses.
METHODS: The study was conducted on 50 nurses working in intensive care units. The data collection tools included Moral Distress Scale and Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory, along with an airway care checklist that it was prepared according to nursing standards. Before the intervention, subjects completed the questionnaires and their function of airway care was investigated through the checklist. Then nurses were trained face to face. After training, assessors evaluated the nurses by observing the quality of airway care through the standard checklist. Then, the moral distress and fatigue questionnaires were filled again and the results of training before and after were analyzed.
RESULTS: The rate of moral distress and fatigue among nurses was significantly reduced before and after training (p< 0.001). In addition, the quality of airway management increased from 70% to 86% (p< 0.001).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Airway management training can result in decreasing the nurses’ moral distress and compassion fatigue and improving the quality of airway care